Wisconsin is trucking more than 38,500 gallons of toxic, PFAS-containing firefighting foam to low-income, Black-majority Emelle, Ala., home to one of the country’s largest hazardous waste landfills.
Category: Environment
Mississippi River’s historic high and low water levels vex shipping industry
The Mississippi River has reached near-historic lows for the second year in a row, which is slowing down shipping and driving up costs for everyone from barge companies to grain elevators.
Wisconsin utilities push own policies to compensate solar panel owners, but advocates want a unified approach
Solar advocates say there should be a uniform policy for compensating residential solar generation, rather than allowing “ad-hoc major reforms utility by utility.”
Chlorine creates harmful byproducts in drinking water. New research seeks solutions.
The Environmental Protection Agency is funding four new research projects into a fundamental drinking water challenge: how to make sure water stays clean of illness-causing microbes without accidentally creating toxic chemicals.
Poor regulatory safeguards leave farmworkers suffocating in the face of increasing heat waves
A fifth of reported heat-related deaths between 2017 and 2022 were agricultural workers, according to OSHA data. Advocacy groups are calling attention to the impact of climate change on this group.
Low-income Chicago suburbs eye ‘RainReady’ investments to limit flooding
Heavy rainfall disproportionately affects people of color and immigrants in the Chicago region. Residents are crafting solutions.
Climate change, more rainfall threatens wild rice in northern Minnesota
Wild rice thrives in shallow waters and serves as a sacred “mashkiki,” or medicine, to the Ojibwe.
Climate costs imperil Detroit’s Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood
Some worry flooding costs could fuel climate gentrification in the ‘Venice of Detroit.’
The Mississippi River’s floodplain forests are dying. The race is on to bring them back.
Floodplain forests play a pivotal role in the river ecosystem – creating wildlife habitat, improving water quality, storing carbon and slowing flooding. But they’re disappearing.
Milwaukee residents fear more flooding due to planned I-94 expansion
Two extra highway lanes will add 29 acres of asphalt next to Near West Side Milwaukee neighborhoods that already face flood risks.
South Side Chicago neighbors fight Lake Michigan’s erosion and flooding
Climate change impacts on Chicago’s South Side are relatedly drawing attention from city and state officials.
Inundation and injustice: Flooding presents a formidable threat to the Great Lakes region
Cities throughout the Great Lakes region are grappling with archaic wastewater systems, crumbling infrastructure and segregated housing creating a perfect storm of flooding vulnerability.